--- --- Apr 26, 2021 # Flutterwave Powering retailers by [Aryn Baker](/author/aryn-baker/) ## Aryn Baker  Illustration by Tomi Um for TIME The co-founder and CEO of Nigeria’s Flutterwave, [Olugbenga Agboola](https://time.com/collection/time100-next-2021/5937722/olugbenga-agboola/ "undefined"), compares the infrastructure of digital transactions across nations and platforms (think credit cards, debit payments and digital wallets) to plumbing: you don’t want to think about it, you just want it to work. When pandemic lockdowns hit brick-and-mortar businesses in Africa, the digital-payment service was able to rapidly set up digital storefronts for 20,000 customers, throwing them a lifeline. Agboola called the free campaign “keeping the lights on.” Flutterwave hit tech-unicorn status in March when it secured $170 million in Series C funding from global investors, valuing the company at more than $1 billion. Flutterwave Is One of the 2021 TIME100 Most Influential Companies ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5949986/flutterwave-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5949986/flutterwave-2/"},"headline":"Flutterwave","datePublished":"2021-04-26T22:13:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:49:19.340Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5949986/flutterwave-2/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4701e9ff4956b986/698a1906b21a9c204c504bc5/Flutterwave-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aryn Baker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/"}],"creator":"Aryn Baker","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4701e9ff4956b986/698a1906b21a9c204c504bc5/Flutterwave-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5949986/flutterwave-2/","name":"Flutterwave"}}]}] ```